Tuesday, May 9, 2017

AG Sally Yates Testifies That She Warned Trump Administration Twice That NSA Michael Flynn Had Been “Compromised” By The Russians

Federal career prosecutor Sally Yates, who served as acting attorney general for the first 10 days of Donald Trump’s term, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism today.

Yates told the committee that she had warned the Trump administration, not once but twice, that Trump's national security advisor, Michael Flynn, had been “compromised” and “could essentially be blackmailed” by the Russians.

Yates told the Subcommittee that in late January she called White House Counsel Don McGahn and told him she needed to talk to him in person about a sensitive matter. She then said she met with McGahn at the White House on both Jan. 26 and Jan. 27, relaying to him on both occasions that Flynn had provided information to Vice President Mike Pence that the Justice Department “knew to be untrue.”

Yates testified that she warned McGahn that Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December after Vice President Pence had made inaccurate statements on national television in which Pence claimed that Flynn had not discussed said sanctions...

“We felt like the vice president and others were entitled to know that the information they were conveying to the American people wasn’t true. We were concerned that the American people had been misled about underlying conduct and what Gen. Flynn had done.”

It was the Justice Department's belief that Moscow had been watching this situation unfold and could use it to their advantage by blackmailing Gen. Flynn...

“To state the obvious, you don’t want your national security adviser compromised with the Russians,”

Yates went on to say that at the second meeting with McGahn he only used the opportunity to raise four questions: Why the Justice Department was concerned with one White House official giving misleading information to another, whether it was likely the Justice Department would pursue a criminal case against Flynn, if “taking action” against Flynn would interfere with the FBI’s ongoing investigation and whether he could view the evidence against Flynn.

A little suspicious to say the least.

Then three days after the second meeting between Yates and McGhahn she was fired when the Trump administration says she “betrayed the Department of Justice” by refusing to defend Trump’s first Muslim ban.

After her dismissal it was later revealed in letters obtained by the Washington Post that the Justice Department had essentially silenced Yates by forbidding her from publicly discussing Flynn’s departure or his communication with the Russian ambassador claiming those topics were covered by attorney-client privilege or the presidential communication privilege.

So with Yates out of the picture and effectively muzzled the White House obviously felt their Flynn/Russia problem was behind them.

It wasn’t until the Washington Post reported 18 days later about Flynn's discussions about sanctions with Kislyak that Flynn was "forced" to resign. Flynn was still sitting in on highly classified meetings and enjoyed top security clearance during this interim.

The hearing on Monday, in which Yates testified alongside former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, was the first time Yates has spoken publicly about her role in the Flynn saga.

It has come to light that in addition to Yates' warning President Barack Obama had also warned Trump about Flynn.